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Online hiring activity registered a decline for the third consecutive month in August as corporate India adopted a cautious hiring approach owing to significant increase in merger and acquisitions, says a report.

The Monster Employment Index for India stood at 266 in August, down 5 per cent over the corresponding period last year. On a month-on-month basis the index has slipped by 0.74 per cent.

"The current ease in hiring activity is indicative of a cautious hiring scenario owing to merger and acquisitions and an increasing demand for skilled candidates," said Abhijeet Mukherjee CEO Monster.com, APAC and Gulf.

Sector-wise, production and manufacturing (up 64 per cent) led the year-on-year growth in August this year followed by retail (up 48 per cent).

"The Indian economy marched at an impressive rate in the first quarter of 2018-19 as also reflected in the positive GDP growth momentum on the back of strong performance of the production and manufacturing sector," Mukherjee said.

Regarding the uptick in retail, Mukherjee said "the retail sector has shown a phenomenal growth surge which can be attributed to a spurt in online shopping owing to end of season sale and discounts.

He further noted that "demand for freshers with 0-3 years of experience is on rise especially for job roles such as HR and admin as well as legal, which re-emphasises the need for proper guidance and training programs for young talent, he added.

The report noted that online recruitment activity surpassed the year-ago level in nine of the 13 occupation groups monitored by the index and was led by Health care (up 21 per cent), HR and admin (up 19 per cent) and finance and account (up 16 per cent).

In terms of cities, Chandigarh (up 17 per cent) and Jaipur (up 4 per cent) were the only cities to register positive growth on the year.

Online hiring activity stumbled further in the five key cities of Hyderabad (down nine per cent), Bangalore (down nine per cent), Chennai (down six per cent), Delhi-NCR (down seven per cent)and Mumbai (down four per cent), the report noted.